


Destroy the Middle, It's a Waste of Time (From the Perfect Start To the Finish Line)

by poetsandzombies



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Canon Divergence, Light Angst, M/M, Mid-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 09:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20598890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetsandzombies/pseuds/poetsandzombies
Summary: With their return to Derry, Richie and Eddie remember that they were together before they left.





	Destroy the Middle, It's a Waste of Time (From the Perfect Start To the Finish Line)

**Author's Note:**

> Even though this is a brief piece taking place during the movie, you can bet I'd give y'all a fix-it and a happy ending. 
> 
> (On Tumblr Here: https://meetmebythekissingbridge.tumblr.com/post/187632713280/it-came-back-to-him-like-a-fist-to-his-chestlike)

It came back to him like a fist to his chest—like air filling his lungs—like the sudden reminder to breathe; his last years in Derry spent beneath school bleachers and behind abandoned bathroom stalls, entangled in the limbs of another boy, the distinct feeling of an inhaler digging into his hipbone. The tight and desperate promise to get out of this town together. 

By the way Eddie was looking back at him, Richie knew he’d seen it too. These lost memories had abandoned them somewhere on the outskirts of their shared childhoods. Richie opened his mouth to say something—_say what?_—when a hand clasped him firmly on his shoulder, spun him around, and pulled him into a crushing hug. 

“Mike?” He wheezed. 

So he sat through the long and grueling task of reunions, with their shared air and not-shared air, the houses their futures had built, and _yes_, the marriages. He dealt through his usual obtrusive manners and tasteless jokes until the reunions felt less long and grueling and more like coming home. 

But an empty dinner plate sat between him and the man he used to know, and anticipation shook in the clinking of silverware held with loose wrists. 

And then there were the fortune cookies. Seriously, fuck this town. 

So Richie didn’t get a moment alone with Eddie until they were back at the motel, after everyone had slipped into their rooms for the night. He paced about it, fighting himself the entire walk down the hallway, but when he was finally about to knock, the door swung open. 

“Oh,” Eddie startled when he caught sight of Richie. “I was about to-”

“Me too,” Richie said. He smiled. Eddie moved aside awkwardly and gestured to let him in. 

The silence was restless between them. Where would they even begin? And were there even words for it? For the thing that had happened to them—all the years they had lost.

“I lost you,” Richie said finally, though the thought is unfamiliar and new on his tongue; he’d only just learned it earlier that afternoon. 

Eddie frowned. He reached out and took Richie’s hand in his own, inspecting the scar on the palm of his hand. Then he pulled it up to his mouth and kissed it. It was an old, lost comfort they had gotten into the habit of doing back in senior year when they first began making plans to leave. Their scars started to hurt like a threat, then. Richie remembered that. 

“Well, we’re here now,” Eddie said. 

“Yeah,” Richie agreed doubtfully. _Broken_, he wanted to add. _Married_. 

Eddie hadn’t really changed from the boy Richie had known when they were kids, but there was this new confidence in the way he leaned in and kissed him like he was allowed to. Like the last twenty odd years didn’t matter and they could get back to the way things were. 

Richie kissed him back and wished that they could. He wanted his jokes and his elbows in ribcages and Eddie’s fussiness about curfews and secret meet-up places that might attract diseases, even after everything else they’d been through. He was tired of feeling sad.

“Can I stay here tonight?” He asked instead of the other thing. Eddie closed his eyes and kissed him harder. 


End file.
